A Little More Variety

A few more pictures and what I think are interesting experiences. I enjoy sharing a taste of this country and its people. It has been eye opening for us to see the life of a people that we never even thought about in our pre-mission life. I know we will remember these friendships and experiences for the rest of our life.

First, a correction of my last post. When it was first published I called Chilean Cowboys Juasos. That shows my lack of Spanish language knowledge. So I went in and corrected it. Huaso is the correct spelling and pronunciation. The "h"is not pronounced, so us English speakers would say it 'waso'. Spelling it with a 'j' would give it an American 'h'sound at the beginning.

Now, that is not a big deal but it explains this next part of the blog. My sister-in-law serving in England now has been showing some funny signs she sees in her mission. We find some humor in some of our Chilean signs as well.

Remember the h is silent and the j says h

This next sign we saw as we traveled to the Santiago West Mission office to deliver some missionaries who were headed home. The mission office is in a town called Maipu.

I have had gas like this in the past, but I never thought of selling it.

It is basically February here in Chile right now, sort of speak. But we have had some beautiful weather and signs of spring are starting to appear. This was at our Farm Guest house and I thought it was rather striking. 

We have looked and looked for some corn tortillas, but they are not to be found in Chile, at least in our driving radius. So we found some corn flour and checking the internet for a recipe we decided to try making our own. They looked good and we were quite proud of our accomplishment. We were excited to try them.

And after a few hours of mixing and smashing and frying we decided to heat up the grease and fry up some chips. Our hope was to get us some great chips we could have with Barbs enchiladas. We fried them up and added some salt. Our bubble popped when they were so hard and crunchy and tasteless that we have given up hope for homemade goodness. Faithful Denali, our daughter in law, has shipped us some corn tortillas from Costco.

Next a little spot on the big South American AgReservas Seminar. We have been helping some men learn to speak English for their presentations. It has surprised us how hard it is to get a Spanish speaking mouth to form English words. They are so programmed to form each and every letter in a certain way that reading English throws them for a loop. I came up with an idea to form the words using phonetics. It was a challenge to write but it worked. The only problem was they could say the words but had no idea what they were saying.

Lastly, and I am pretty sure you are tired of me talking about this, but the planting process has started for the last bit of trees to bring us to the 6 million tree total. The precision has impressed me as I have said over and over, but the fact it is by hand is amazing. Here are a few pictures of the starting process. 

The vertical end stakes you see set the distance between rows.

Bamboo stakes are dropped along a stretched string

See the little red mark on the string? The bamboo
stake will be driven in at that point.

The red mark is more visible.

Using a hand trowel, the crew will plant a tree
by each stake. 

More "fascinating" planting pictures in the future.

Potpourri. Is that spelled right?

Here is just a variety of experiences we have been having. We seem to get around ok now, but we run into some strange things now and then.

While traveling to Melipilla, the town where we attend church and do most of our shopping, we pass a very strange farm. In St. George you work like crazy to get rid of these things, but some people here plant them for a farm and make their living off of the fruit.

If you have ever had a bad day at work, just imagine quitting your job and coming to Chili to pick Tuna.  What you are seeing are huge fields of prickly pear cactus. Imagine working your way through there to pick the fruit. Maybe your job isn't so bad. 

The fruit is called Tuna. Nope, I have no idea why. We don't see it in the stores or fruit stands, but somewhere in the world there is a market for it. So- we had to give it a try.

Please ignore the old man wrinkles

So needless to say, we won't be ordering any tuna in the future.

We seem to go shopping all the time. It is probably only once a week, but to me that is all the time. And the store of choice is:

You will probably recognize the symbol, but the South American name is not Wal-Mart. We didn't find ourselves here very often in the States, but here, it is our mainstay. God Bless Sam Walton. We got tired of the drive to Melipilla so we headed Northwest to San Antonio. It was a refreshing change. The road was free from litter without lots of traffic. The scenery was amazing after the winter rains have come.

Es muy verde

Here is an interesting phenom here in Chile, and probably in many Catholic dominated countries. You cannot miss the little roadside shrines everywhere you drive. As we have inquired they represent a remembrance of a departed loved one. The person most likely died at or near the spot and their family has erected a little shrine in remembrance. I guess you see things like this in the states now and then, but these seem to be at every turn. They are called "animita"which I think stands for spirit. Most are just placed by families with no involvement of their church, but once in awhile the church does get involved.

Notice the little bench 

How about a picnic?

Some families can only afford a cardboard box

Others build a building

And for the cherry on top, the next one has Catholic church involvement. This particular shrine started in Argentina around the 1840's. A man named Clemente Bustos was forcibly recruited to go to war. His wife was very distraught after he was taken and decided to follow him with his infant son. She didn't have enough supplies and lay dying of thirst under a tree she found. As herdsmen passed by that spot the next day they found her body laying by the tree, but her infant son had survived by nursing from his deceased mother. The child was taken by the men and an attempt was made to find his father. Here the story has different endings. Some say the child became weak and died, while others say he lived to an old age. Nevertheless, as the story spread the Catholic church decided to designate the brave woman a saint. She is Saint Deolinda Correa and every year people travel by her shrine in Argentina and pay their respects. Other countries have also put up shrines to this saint. Our local shrine doesn't look too saintly because truckers in Chile have taken her as their saint and bring her water so she will grant them safety and good luck.

Just warms your heart doesn't it!

A few parting shots. A cowboy in Chile is called ___________? Give up? I had never heard of this before, but Barbara and I are teaching one. He is a great guy and is very proud of his lifestyle. He has invited us to a "rodeo"in September. It should be fun to watch. No bucking broncs in the ring. That is all done at home in their spare time. The goal of a "rodeo"in Chile is all about working cattle with your trained horse. Two "Huasos" mounted on their home trained horses maneuver a steer around a ring trapping it against the side rail at designated locations. They are timed and have to complete a certain number of captures. 

Barbara and I were driving to Melipilla the other day- oh wait- it was just yesterday on our weekly run to Lider, and we passed these Huasos on the highway.

Look how the stirrups fits the fore part of the foot.
Their traditional hat is a broad flat brim and a flat top.

The riderless horse looks like he has had a workout today as
they were probably breaking him for future use.

Hasta luego!

Evidence of Gratitude

We have more comments on our last post than any other. It was the women very concerned for Barbara's well-being after the haircut. So here is the answer to all those concerns.

And here is Barbara for her own comments-

As you can see Sam did a terrific job! I was a little concerned when he started because he said"I'm sorry dear, but the back is probably shorter than you wanted." I didn't say anything but thought "gulp!" No worries though....I am very pleased!!

I don't know who is more grateful, Barb or Me. Gratitude from us both.

More Evidence of Bravery